freight
Americannoun
-
goods, cargo, or lading transported for pay, whether by water, land, or air.
-
the ordinary conveyance or means of transport of goods provided by common carriers (distinguished from express).
Shipping by freight is less expensive.
-
the charges, fee, or compensation paid for such transportation.
We pay the freight.
- Synonyms:
- haulage, freightage
-
(especially in Britain) the cargo, or any part of the cargo, of a vessel; merchandise transported by water.
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Chiefly British. transportation of goods by water.
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Slang. cost or price, especially when high.
I'd like a larger house, but can't afford the freight.
verb (used with object)
-
freights,
present (3rd person singular)
-
freighted,
past participle, past
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freighting
present participle
-
to load; burden.
a story heavily freighted with private meaning.
- Synonyms:
- charge
-
to load with goods or merchandise for transportation.
It took all night to freight the ship.
-
to transport as freight; send by freight.
noun
-
-
commercial transport that is slower and cheaper than express
-
the price charged for such transport
-
goods transported by this means
-
( as modifier )
freight transport
-
-
a ship's cargo or part of it
verb
-
to load with goods for transport
-
to convey commercially as or by freight
-
to load or burden; charge
Synonym Usage
Freight, cargo, shipment refer to goods being transported from place to place. Freight is the general term for goods transported from one place to another by any means: to send freight from New York to New Orleans. Cargo is the term generally used for goods carried by ship or plane: to send a cargo to Europe. Shipment is a quantity of goods destined for a particular place, no matter how sent: a shipment of potatoes.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
freightsimple
-
freightssimple
-
have freightedperfect
-
has freightedperfect
-
am freightingprogressive
-
are freightingprogressive
-
is freightingprogressive
-
have been freightingperfect progressive
-
has been freightingperfect progressive
Past
-
freightedsimple
-
had freightedperfect
-
was freightingprogressive
-
were freightingprogressive
-
had been freightingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of freight
1350–1400; Middle English freyght (noun), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German vrecht, variant of vracht. See fraught
Explanation
Like many nouns that can mean an action as well as an actual thing, freight refers to either the sending of goods or the goods themselves. It can also mean the charge for sending goods. You pay freight for the freight of your freight. Freight can also be used as a verb. If you freight a train with goods, you load it up with items to be shipped, and if you freight your furniture to your new home in another state, you send it there. Use freight like this only if you are sending your things a long distance. If you your new apartment is only across town, you would say that you're moving your things to your new place.
Vocabulary lists containing freight
Beowulf vocabulary
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"Chicago" by Carl Sandburg
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Crossing the Wire
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Mubadala Investment agreed to acquire a majority stake in Arrive Logistics to accelerate the freight brokerage’s expansion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Business is booming for U.S. freight companies, thanks to strong demand from manufacturing customers, a rush of data-center construction and capacity constraints.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026
Yet cargo freight has been hard to electrify because long-haul trucks need hundreds of miles of range while carrying heavy loads, and charging infrastructure has not been consistent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
State-owned Prestwick Airport was also particularly busy with freight flights, seeing a near three-fold year-on-year increase in cargo volumes.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
While the freight trains continued to rumble through town a dozen times a day, little in Clarkston looked familiar to the people who’d spent their lives there.
From "Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference" by Warren St. John
Although it initially freights our empathy scale to favor Gauthier's side, the story humanizes all parties as it progresses.
From Salon ● Feb. 3, 2022
The sheer cost of her course load freights every school day with expectation.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 8, 2019
The reference, to Noah’s ark, is explicit, but Walker freights it with ugly realities.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 22, 2016
Whereas The Bachelor freights every sidelong glance with portent, DWTS’s stumbles and heartbreaks are all edited to make the stakes feel as low as possible.
From Slate ● May 24, 2016
The shipping of way freights is always attended with more proportionate expense and delay than at prominent and terminal points.
From Monopolies and the People by D. C. Cloud
The assertion that Asian Americans and other nonwhite immigrants don’t “assimilate”—a freighted term, to be sure—is both easy and hard to refute.
From Slate ● May 26, 2026
The fruit is pre-cooled for five hours before being packed and transported in refrigerated vans and then stored in cold rooms before being air freighted.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
Some elements of this year’s White House decor theme seem similarly freighted.
From Salon ● Dec. 11, 2025
After years apart, the band feels lighter and less freighted with expectation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 11, 2025
Weariness and sorrow freighted each page of his letter.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
The heatwave lowered levels in the Rhine River - a major shipping route - limiting the amount cargo ships can transport and raising freighting costs.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2025
Shannon frames each scene in his modest film with care, freighting many of his shots through doors and windows with meaning.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2023
What’s fallen off a little is the stories freighting that message.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2022
The company turned briefly to air freighting products to meet demand, but at five or six times the cost of sea freight, it cut into the company’s profits.
From New York Times ● Oct. 31, 2021
Besides, freighting the timber to northern mills would keep his railroad cars puffing.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
